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FBI Special Agent in Charge Robert Foley III addresses the media and announces that investigators have given up their search for the remains of Jimmy Hoffa at an overgrown farm field in Oakland Township today. / Eric Seals/Detroit Free Press

Jimmy Hoffa has been missing since 1975.

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The umpteenth dig for Jimmy Hoffa may have unearthed zilch, but the FBI’s decades-old search for the famous Teamsters leader is far from over.

“It remains an open investigation,” FBI spokesman Simon Shaykhet said Wednesday, shortly after a nearly three-day excavation involving shovels and cadaver dogs was called off in Oakland Township. “As long as cases remain open, the FBI remains committed to the pursuit of justice.”

Just before 11 a.m. Wednesday, Detroit’s FBI chief Robert Foley III announced that investigators had not found any evidence that Hoffa was buried in an overgrown Oakland Township farm field, where they were led to by a tipster with close ties to the mob.

“After a diligent search … we did not uncover any evidence relevant to the investigation on James Hoffa,” Foley said. “We’re very confident of our result here after two days-plus of diligent effort.”

He added: “Certainly, we’re disappointed.”

So was the tipster. Anthony Zerilli, 85, the son of reputed former Detroit mob boss Joseph Zerilli, told the FBI in January that Hoffa was struck with a shovel and then buried alive on the property, with a slab of concrete placed over the body. The 62-year-old Hoffa was kidnapped on the afternoon of July 30, 1975, from the parking lot of what was then the Machus Red Fox restaurant in Bloomfield Township.

Despite the FBI’s latest search results, Zerilli is sticking to his story.

“Mr. Zerilli is convinced he’s there ... There’s zero doubt in his mind,” Zerilli’s lawyer David Chasnick told the Free Press, noting his client was distraught and frustrated by the FBI’s decision to stop digging.

“It’s unsettling,” Chasnick said. “He wanted it to finally be put to rest.”

According to Chasnick, who is adamant his client is telling the truth, there may be one of three reasons the FBI didn’t find anything:

■ One, they didn’t search enough of the property. Chasnick said that the FBI didn’t search the whole properly because the court limited the warrant to a small area. The FBI has disputed that, saying it searched exactly what it needed to, which was about one acre.

■ Two, Zerilli’s source gave him a false story. (Details are in a 22-page manuscript Zerilli is selling online)

■ Three, Zerilli did get the right story, but that the killers dumped the body in another location, when they were supposed to dump it in the field.

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Over the years, authorities have received scores of tips. None has panned out.